Tuesday, 25 August 2015

Its started

Autumn migration is always an exciting time, with more birds arriving in the easterly winds. With news of a possible Booted Warbler down at Sumburgh, we headed south in the hope that it may linger.

Willow warblers

A quick look in the garden revealed a Willow Warbler not a brightly coloured as the Noss bird. It was difficult picking up birds with the dense foliage but a smaller, very active bird appeared next to the WW, but flew off towards the hotel and couldn't be relocated. Young Pied Wagtails chased each other along the southern wall and then a couple of nicely coloured Wheatear popped into view.

Walking along the path to the farm more Wheatear flew up in front of me, along with another Willow warbler and wren. At the farm, birds quickly revealed themselves with Pied Flycatcher, Icterine warbler, Redstart and a further couple of Willow Warbler very active. The Booted Warbler finally made a brief appearance in the bush between the kept and unkept gardens A Swallow came over low and up at the cattle pens two Whinchat showed well.

Flocks of Starling started coming over, then a few Redshank and Rock Dove no doubt scared by the passing Merlin that was chasing a small bird.

Looking over the beach at Grutness a small party of waders could be seen scurrying along the tide line. These included - Dunlin(2) Turnstone(2) Sanderling (15) Oystercatcher (1) Ringed Plover(8) Redshank (2) and a flock of Knot (32) flew south

At the Grutness garden three willow warbler came into view catching insects, then a large brown warbler flew up out of a small bush and up and over the wall ? Another female Pied flycatcher moved along the more mature shrubs but stayed in the shade.

Down at the jetty three Shag stood with wings outstretched drying off after a recent fishing trips. A flock of 38 Kittiwake came over and in the distance around 50 Gannets could be seen diving in for fish.

This week Pallid Harrier (Spiggie) Sabine gull (Sumburgh) Black Tern & Wood Sandpiper (Hillwell), Lesser Grey Shrike (Lunna) Arctic warbler (Walls) along with Barred and Icterine Warbler and a few Red Backed Shrike became the more exotic visitors to the south mainland

Weather wise its been excellent over the weekend apart from being windy, but at least these easterly winds bring in the migrants

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About Me

Shetland is a magical place to visit and even better to live in. You really feel close to nature, there is so much to see and learn. The landscape is for ever changing under the wind blown sky. Its a place where you can make a difference, where recording and undertaking wildlife surveys do make you feel that you are connecting with nature.
Shetland has to be one of the best UK destinations for photography. The light is so clear and crisp, the weather is constantly changing giving superb cloud formations.
Being a dark site destination Shetland is always going to be great for astrophotography, although very challenging with windy nights.
I use Nikon D610 , D7100 & Sony A7s cameras with a sigma 500 + 800 mm lenses as well as a 105 macro Nikon, Samyang 14 mm & 24mm .Contact shetsip@gmail.com